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OCR Comparison, and Who Gets the "Thank You!"?
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 6:34 pm
by 3wbY
Hello,
I had been searching for a software program that would provide me a respectable OCR result for the myriad of .pdf-based documents I have. Come to find out, PDF-Xchange Viewer actually has that ability, and I already had it installed and had been using it for a few years. Who knew!?
And how is it I didn't notice it until just recently? Probably because I never thought that a free program would actually have it. But it does, and so far it's working very nicely.
So who gets the "Thank You!"?
In any event, I was curious if someone could provide a comparison between the free OCR feature in the Viewer and the "Enhanced OCR Plugin," especially as it relates to handwriting.
Thank you.
Re: OCR Comparison, and Who Gets the "Thank You!"?
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 7:02 pm
by TrackerSupp-Daniel
Hello 3wbY,
The best way to compare the capabilities would be to
download the Editor and test with your documents first hand. Simply Installing Version 8 (even the free version) includes a 30 day trial of the Enhanced OCR engine, after which it will revert to our default OCR engine. Much like the viewer, when using any premium functions in the Editor, "Demo stamps" will be applied, but beyond that you are free to use all functions at your leisure.
As for the specific case of handwritten text. Generally speaking, no OCR engine handles handwritten text well, some of them can get lucky once in a while if the text is carefully written our in a blocky format, but as an example, cursive handwriting will almost always result in garbled results, regardless of whose OCR engine you attempt to use. Our Engines are no exception to that rule, and will produce much better results when handling text that is "font based". Whether this is from a scanned printout that was originally typed out, an old newspaper article make with a printing press, or something hand typed on a typewriter; those options will produce better results in nearly all situations.
Kind regards,
Re: OCR Comparison, and Who Gets the "Thank You!"?
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 7:08 pm
by 3wbY
TrackerSupp-Daniel wrote: ↑Thu Oct 24, 2019 7:02 pm
Hello 3wbY,
The best way to compare the capabilities would be to
download the Editor and test with your documents first hand. Simply Installing Version 8 (even the free version) includes a 30 day trial of the Enhanced OCR engine, after which it will revert to our default OCR engine. Much like the viewer, when using any premium functions in the Editor, "Demo stamps" will be applied, but beyond that you are free to use all functions at your leisure.
As for the specific case of handwritten text. Generally speaking, no OCR engine handles handwritten text well, some of them can get lucky once in a while if the text is carefully written our in a blocky format, but as an example, cursive handwriting will almost always result in garbled results, regardless of whose OCR engine you attempt to use. Our Engines are no exception to that rule, and will produce much better results when handling text that is "font based". Whether this is from a scanned printout that was originally typed out, an old newspaper article make with a printing press, or something hand typed on a typewriter; those options will produce better results in nearly all situations.
Kind regards,
I may give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion.
Re: OCR Comparison, and Who Gets the "Thank You!"?
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:01 pm
by TrackerSupp-Daniel
